Why Do They Hate Us?

[Gary Lawrence Murphy]

>>>>> "P" == Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net> writes:

    P> Read what Bill said. Some people start any discussion with the
    P> premise that multinational corporations are evil, America is
    P> evil, oil companies are evil, etc. I don't see that as
    P> "critique".

Bucky Fuller's critique ("Grunch of Giants") puts a very sad spin on
this.  According to Fuller, 

   some oil companies are among the evil multinationals

   despite their origins, no multinationals are American

Thus, to their benefit, the multinationals lobby congress (who needs
the multinationals during election years) yet they are not answerable
to congress.  Most have high-percentages of American stock-holders,
and most still fly Old Glory on their flagpole, but the USA has little
or no control or jurisdiction over them.  In the developing nations,
people, largely illiterate and puppetted by those who are literate,
can only read the Stars and Stripes, and they conclude (wrongly) that
the USA is their enemy.

Fuller, of course, cites historical and 80's vintage literature that I
have no means to evaluate.  He also makes claims based on Samuel
Adam's influence on the Constitution to support the dependence of the
US Congress on the kindness of rich strangers, and to explain why the
US military is bound in to rush to defend these non-American entities,
but as but I barely understand my own constitution, I can hardly
comment about someone else's.

Still, if I and the generations of readers who still buy this book
cannot easily decide if Bucky was right or wrong, I'd expect it is
reasonable even an educated man like Osama bin Laden could likewise
confuse the USA with those who he sees as wronging (or more precisely
"obstructing") _his_ Islam.

Besides, if he attacked Bermuda, would it have jammed CNN for two weeks?